Bob Schaffer
Robert Warren Schaffer is a Republican former member of the United States House of Representatives from the State of Colorado in the 105th Congress and the two succeeding Congresses. Schaffer was co-chairman of the Congressional Ukrainian Caucus, and an outspoken leader in promoting American interests and human rights in Eastern Europe.
Schaffer is currently Headmaster of Liberty Common High School in Fort Collins, Colorado. Under Schaffer's leadership, two classes have broken the state's all-time record composite ACT and SAT scores, respectively.
In 2004, Schaffer lost in the primary election to be the Republican nominee for a U.S. Senate seat. He was the Republican nominee for Colorado's other Senate seat in the 2008 election, which he lost to Democratic nominee Mark Udall.
Biography
Early years
Schaffer was born in Cincinnati, Ohio and raised Catholic. He attended Archbishop Moeller High School.The son of public-school teachers, Schaffer worked his way through college as a farm hand. In 1984, he graduated from the University of Dayton with a B.A. in Political Science. He was later awarded an honorary doctorate in Management from Colorado Technical University.
Colorado State Senator
Schaffer served for nine years as a Colorado State Senator in the Colorado General Assembly. Schaffer was only 25 years old in 1987 when he was appointed to finish Colorado State Senator Jim Beatty's term, making Schaffer the youngest to serve in Colorado's Senate. As a Colorado Senator, he was Chairman of the Finance Committee, the State Veterans and Military Affairs Committee, and the Local Government Committee. Schaffer also was the Vice-Chairman of the Senate Education Committee. Schaffer was awarded the "National Republican Legislator of the Year for 1995" by the National Republican Legislators Association.In 1993, Schaffer made headlines when he removed a display from the Capitol—that was in clear view of visiting children—that contained pamphlets describing "unsafe sexual practices."
U.S. Congressman
Schaffer was first elected to the U.S. Congress in November 1996 representing Colorado's 4th congressional district, succeeding Wayne Allard and Hank Brown.Schaffer served three terms in Congress, fulfilling the three-term pledge he made during his first Congressional campaign.
Schaffer upheld his pledge in spite of pleas from national Republicans and President George W. Bush to run for another term. Schaffer lead no less than four congressional delegations to Ukraine, and offered an ultimately unsuccessful balanced budget resolution and amendment. He was described as fiscally and socially conservative and to the right of the center of the party.
His education policy work focused on school-choice and local control, and Schaffer was remembered for being able to help his Republican colleagues form their arguments when debating this issue. He was succeeded by Marilyn Musgrave in January 2003. His congressional colleagues recount his tenure in congress as an education-policy expert.
Schaffer is of Ukrainian heritage, the son of a Ukrainian immigrant to the United States. He has received multiple recognitions for his advocacy of Ukraine–United States relations, and for defense of Ukraine's territorial integrity under the 1994 Budapest Memorandum. Schaffer was co-founder and co-chair of the Congressional Ukrainian Caucus. Schaffer served as an election observer in Ukraine during parliamentary election 2002 and presidential election 2004.
The American Conservative Union gave him a 100% evaluation in 2001.
Post-2002 career
Liberty Common High School
In 2010, Schaffer was appointed principal of Liberty Common High School, a college-preparatory charter school in the Poudre School District in Fort Collins, Colorado. During his time at Liberty Common, the first four graduating classes posted the highest average composite ACT score in Colorado, with the class of 2015 breaking the state record. In 2017, Schaffer was appointed headmaster of both Liberty Common High School and Liberty Common School, its elementary counterpart.Controversy
In May 2019, Liberty Common High School banned four seniors from attending graduation. The seniors had bought a box of 25 condoms and distributed them in lockers across the school; they claimed this action was a statement against Schaffer's criticism of Colorado House Bill 19-1032, which would mandate comprehensive sex education in Colorado schools. Schaffer condemned the distribution of condoms as "sexual bullying." The incident was covered in statewide news and generated minor controversy online about the seriousness of the condom distribution. In 2019, Liberty Common High School was granted a waiver from the sex education bill.Energy Industry
Schaffer was vice-president for business development at Aspect Energy, LLC., where he was involved in a variety of energy, mining and education projects, working primarily in wind energy. He was also a board member on the National Alternative Fuels Foundation, but environmental groups released attack ads during the 2008 U.S. Senate race highlighting Shcaffer's congressional vote which gave $2.5 billion to alternative energy research and a much larger amount to traditional energy research and tax credits.Board Member
Schaffer served as president of the Parental Alliance for Choice in Education, a non-profit corporation promoting school choice reform in Colorado's public education system, and is active in the state's transformation to a market-driven education system.Leadership Program of the Rockies
Schaffer has been chairman of the Leadership Program of the Rockies, a nonprofit corporation that provides economic education and civic-leadership training in Colorado. Schaffer is a regular columnist for the Fort Collins Coloradoan daily newspaper. Schaffer was also an opinion columnist for the now-defunct Northern Colorado Courier.Colorado League of Charter Schools
Since 2003, Schaffer has been chairman of Leadership Program of the Rockies, a nonprofit organization providing economic education and civic-leadership training in Colorado.Republican National Committee
In March 2005, Schaffer was elected Republican National Committeeman for Colorado.Colorado State Board of Education
Schaffer was appointed to fill a vacancy on the Colorado State Board of Education by a party vacancy committee, representing a district that is coterminous with the state's Fourth Congressional District. He successfully ran for the seat in 2006, against Democrat Tom Griggs. In January, 2009, Schaffer was made chairman of the Colorado State Board of Education with a unanimous decision of the four Republican and three Democratic board members. Fellow board members elected Schaffer to continue his chairmanship in 2011.As Chairman of the Colorado State Board of Education, Schaffer borrowed ideas from Singapore and Finland when working to create new forward-thinking standards that are both internationally benchmarked and designed to grow students’ strategic thinking capabilities over fact memorization.
Citing the importance of letting parents know if someone proximal to their children has been arrested, Schaffer took a leadership role in the effort to require parent notification if a school employee is arrested or charged with a serious crime. The measure went into effect in April 2011 despite strong opposition from the Colorado Education Association, the state-based teachers' unions.
Schaffer maintained the position throughout the debating of the measure that parents are in the best position to make decisions about their children's safety. He voted against adopting Common Core standards, but the federal standards passed on a 4-3 vote. Adopting the standards were a keystone factor to the Colorado's application for $175 million in Race to the Top funds. In early 2011, Schaffer took heat from Democratic State Board of Education member Mary Johnson. The disagreement was over Schaffer's inviting William Maloney, Colorado education commissioner under both parties from 1997 to 2007, who spoke on “three incontestable realities concerning which America has been in denial for decades,” regarding America's education performance on a global scale, the unsustainable costs of education, and the availability of better models for the path forward.
Under Schaffer's chairmanship tenure, unanimous charter school guidelines were adopted. The new concrete rules adopted best practices for charter school authorization.
Other
He is the Colorado Chairman of the Judicial Confirmation Network. In 2006, Schaffer founded Dreamsoft Colorado, LLC, a firm that creates high-end interactive websites for business and political clients. He is also the President of AMDG LLC. As a member of the Fort Collins, Colorado community, he owned a small business.2004 U.S. Senate race
In 2004, Schaffer contended for the Republican nomination to the U.S. Senate after incumbent Republican Ben Nighthorse Campbell chose not to run for re-election. Brewing magnate Pete Coors opposed Schaffer. Coors entered the bitter primary battle after Schaffer faced down potential contenders such as David Liniger, founder of ReMax. The nomination battle concluded when Coors won the Republican nomination over Schaffer with 61% of the vote. Coors went on to lose to Democratic nominee Ken Salazar in the 2004 general election.2008 U.S. Senate election
Schaffer was the Republican nominee for the open seat of retiring Senator Wayne Allard. He lost to Mark Udall, the Democratic nominee.On May 9, 2007, Schaffer filed his official statement of candidacy with the Federal Elections Commission. On May 12, 2007, he made an official announcement in Boulder that he would run for the Senate to a group of over 150 Republicans attending a fundraising event.
On September 28, 2008, Udall and Schaffer appeared on Meet the Press's Senate Debate series, discussing the proposed bailout of the U.S. financial system.
Political opposition
In 2008, the League of Conservation Voters named Schaffer a member of its "Dirty Dozen" because of an anti-environmental record during his tenure in Congress.In 2001, then-congressman Schaffer voted for President Bush's energy plan that Democrats argued was a $33 billion gift to the oil corporations. Republicans argued that the bill would help reduce America's dependence on foreign oil.
Endorsements
- Grand Junction Daily Sentinel on October 9, 2008
- The Pueblo Chieftain on October 17, 2008
Link to the Jack Abramoff Scandals
Schaffer claimed that he spoke with local clergy who denied there was a problem of forced abortions in the Northern Marianas, the only area of the United States where abortion is banned by their local constitution. After his return from the islands, Schaffer used his position on the Resources Committee to attack reports of abuses on the islands.